Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne’s freezer lesson

With Jeremy Corbyn too anti-establishment to speak to the Parliamentary Press Gallery over lunch, George Osborne was hauled before lobby hacks today as the alternative opposition. The former Chancellor didn’t disappoint with his address. The former Conservative politician – and now Evening Standard editor – accused the Tories of ignoring the 48pc Remain voters in the country, said Labour would be 20 points ahead of the Tories if they had a competent leader rather than Jeremy Corbyn and hinted at a comeback to politics – saying ‘never say never’. As for his old foe Theresa May, Osborne said that he didn’t think May would have the numbers for a ‘hard Brexit

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

May’s mistake was embracing the lie that Brexit would be easy

Brexit is getting a far easier ride than it deserves. I accept that its promoters live in a world of paranoid irresponsibility. They lament their unjust suffering, and blame everyone but themselves for its many failings. But consider how Britain has bent over backwards to enable their project. We don’t have an opposition willing to oppose Brexit. A Tony Blair or indeed an Ed Miliband would be hammering home the government’s failures. They would by now have ensured that voters, who barely thought about politics from one month to the next, knew that they had been sold a false prospectus. Instead of robust opposition, however, we have the gloriously hypocritical spectacle

Nick Hilton Nick Hilton

The Spectator Podcast: Carry on Brexit

On this week’s episode we’re looking at the Brexit situation as 2017 draws to a close. We’ll also be marvelling at all the wondrous, and infuriating, jargon to come from our EU withdrawal, and asking whether British aristocrats are being seduced by the new ‘glamocracy’. First up: the days might be getting shorter, but the crises faced by Britain’s Brexit negotiations seem never-ending. Ireland has been the sticking point this week, compounding a torrid month for Theresa May. Her task is Herculean, writes James Forsyth in this week’s magazine cover story, not because she herself is Hercules, but because her tasks are getting more and more difficult. Will the EU ever

Steerpike Steerpike

Gavin Williamson and Philip Hammond’s awkward outing

It’s fair to say that (not for the first time in recent months) things are a little bit awkward around the Cabinet table at the moment. The latest bust-up is between Philip Hammond and Gavin Williamson, with the pair falling out after an ally of the Chancellor compared the new defence secretary to Private Pike from Dad’s Army. Understandably, that did not go down well: the Ministry of Defence has now reportedly blocked Hammond from using RAF jets following a row about an unpaid bill. Yesterday, things took yet another turn for the worse in the ongoing feud after Hammond appeared to suggest Williamson had failed to get his ‘head around the

Steerpike Steerpike

David Davis’s Irish problem

It’s safe to say this hasn’t been a good week for the government with Brexit talks unexpectedly stalling on Monday. But if there were to be one Cabinet minister said to be having the worst time, it would be David Davis. At a select committee appearance on Tuesday, the Brexit secretary came unstuck over the so-called Brexit impact assessment reports. Despite once saying he had commissioned a multitude to make sure there were no nasty surprises that could cause an economic shock, Davis now claims there are no reports and that they would be of no use anyway. This has led many to question whether he is really up to

Ed West Ed West

Christmas markets without armed police are now a thing of the past

I love the Christmas season, so friendly and wholesome and filled with evocative memories – but don’t the machine guns and anti-terror bollards seem to go up earlier each year? Look at the touching festive scenes in Manchester, and Edinburgh, and we’ll see the police and barriers across the country from Liverpool to Lincoln. It’s not quite Bedford Falls is it? I’ve noticed these ‘diversity bollards’ popping up everywhere, without a word spoken about it; a few weeks ago I spotted them at Hyde Park Corner opposite the Duke of Wellington’s house. How would one explain that to Old Nosey? Well, Britain has nuclear warheads that could literally obliterate any country that threatened us,

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Labour must clarify its Brexit plan

Another day, another Brexit warning: this time it comes from the head of Standard Chartered, who says that Britain’s imminent departure from the EU is already having a negative impact. Bill Winters said that his bank is already ‘preparing for the worst’. The Sun says that the ‘same old commentators’ are repeating themselves constantly with their warnings that ‘Britain’s going to hell in a handcart’ as a result of Brexit. ‘Give it a rest’, the paper urges them. The Sun goes on to concede that yesterday ‘wasn’t a good day for the Government’. David Davis’s ‘impact assessment’ misunderstanding and the ongoing row between the Irish PM and the DUP which rumbles

Dot Wordsworth

Lost for words

Emma Bridgewater has, since 1985, produced pottery acceptable in tasteful middle-class kitchens. Some jars had Coffee on and some Biscuits. Coffee meant ‘coffee’ and Biscuits meant ‘biscuits’. In a similar attempt to achieve popularity, Theresa May told us that Brexit meant ‘Brexit’. It said so on the jar. But as the Emma Bridgewater range grew, it included a plate bearing the words ‘Bacon & Egg. Bubble & Squeak’. The ampersands were attractive, but it was unlikely that the plate would really accommodate the items suggested. Now Brexit, once an admirably plain portmanteau of Britain and exit, became a mug’s game. Its meaning is supposed to vary according to what adjective

Chris Mullin

Feeding the frenzy

Tony Blair once remarked, during one of the periodic feeding frenzies that engulf British politics, that public life was becoming a game of ‘gotcha’. These days feeding frenzies, like Atlantic hurricanes, seem to strike with increasing frequency. No week passes without someone, somewhere calling for this or that minister to quit. When a minister does resign the focus quickly switches to whomever is next in line. No sooner has the defence secretary gone than Damian Green enters the frame, until Priti Patel obligingly puts her head on the block, only to be followed by Boris Johnson, and so on. Now, three weeks on, Damian Green is again back in the spotlight.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Get a grip, Prime Minister

Theresa May’s Brexit challenge is truly Herculean. Every time she believes she has done enough to finally move the Brexit process on, she is told that there is something else she must do. And each time, her tasks become more difficult. The problem is compounded by the fact that May is weakening her own hand. The Monday misstep has harmed the UK’s position. As one Tory insider laments, ‘Things with the EU are bad. It shows Theresa can’t really deliver.’ Even a senior figure at the Department for Exiting the European Union admits that the ‘handling was poor’. The UK is also coming up against hardball negotiating tactics. There have

Nicholas Farrell

‘Fascist? No! I’m a federalist’

The man who could become Italy’s next prime minister is sat just opposite the entrance to the huge US and Nato airbase near Catania in Sicily at a hotel confiscated from the Mafia. It’s not Silvio Berlusconi, no matter how much the British press tells us that ‘Berlusconi is Back!’ Silvio Il Magnifico (as I call him) cannot be prime minister because he is banned from public office after his four-year jail sentence for tax fraud in 2012 (commuted to a year’s community service in an old people’s home). No, the man I’m talking to is Matteo Salvini, leader of Lega, the leading party on the right (15 per cent,

Wednesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris left alone to fight for divergence at Cabinet

After the DUP took issue with government’s handling of the Irish border question on Monday, Theresa May had to return home from her lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker empty-handed. What’s more, there’s no indication that a solution is in sight anytime soon. The DUP worry that the wording in the draft text – promising regulatory alignment in relation to the Good Friday agreement – could see Northern Ireland treated differently than the rest of the UK – and result in an Irish sea border. Meanwhile, some Brexiteers worry that agreeing regulatory alignment between the UK and Ireland could mean an end to the clean Brexit they envisaged. So, one could be

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Jeremy Corbyn scores six own-goals in a row at PMQs

Ah the joys of political marriages. Theresa May’s pact with the DUP bolstered her at PMQs today, and she delivered her most assured performance since the election. Having an ally who secretly hates you is the ultimate liberation, as David Cameron discovered with the LibDems. May is free to flourish the ultimate get-out clause any time: ‘Them lot made me do it,’ is the best excuse in Westminster. And the DUP are a pretty formidable outfit. Grouped en masse around the microphone they look like a pack of concrete gnomes designed to halt a speeding tank. The Easter Island statues would probably deliver a softer Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn had a

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tory Brexiteers are clearly becoming more concerned

Remarkably, Theresa May made it through PMQs today pretty much unscathed. I cannot, though, report that this was because she launched a brilliant counter-attack or came with a way to break through the current Brexit impasse. Rather it was because Jeremy Corbyn’s questions lacked forensic precision. One suspects that if Robin Cook had been at the other despatch box, May would have had a far tougher time. There was a collective parliamentary failure today because, at the end of the 45 minute session of PMQs, we knew no more about the state of the Brexit negotiations than we did when we went in. When the DUP’s Jim Shannon asked for

Steerpike Steerpike

Jacob Rees-Mogg: May’s Brexit red lines look ‘a little bit pink’

Theresa May’s Brexit red lines were intended to keep her backbenchers happy, reassuring them that there would be no backsliding on Brexit. The approach worked. But at PMQs today there were signs that some Brexiteer Tory MPs are starting to worry. Jacob Rees-Mogg told the Prime Minister he was concerned her red lines were ‘beginning to look a little bit pink’. He urged her to ‘apply a new coat of paint’ before she next goes to Brussels. Perhaps the PM had better get her paint brush out before she has a backbench rebellion to add to her list of woes…

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

David Davis’s words are coming back to haunt him

Not for the first time, David Davis’s words came back to haunt him as he was quizzed on Brexit today. The Brexit secretary, who is having something of a tough week in a year of tough weeks, told MPs that no detailed sector-by-sector analysis of what the impact of leaving the European Union would be had been carried out. He said this morning that: ‘The usefulness of such a detailed impact assessment is near zero and given how we were stretching our resources to get to where we were at the time, it was not a sensible use of resources.’ So far, so simple. The only problem? As Hilary Benn

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Brexit draft agreement leaks

Theresa May is having a tough week after her plan to agree ‘sufficient progress’ with Jean Claude-Juncker in time for the crucial EU council meeting was brought to a stop by the DUP. The DUP are now dragging their feet over whether or not they can back or amend the government’s ‘solution’ to the Irish border – a promise of ‘regulatory alignment’ in relation to areas covered by the Good Friday agreement (and perhaps beyond). Meanwhile, the eurosceptic wing os the party is seeing red over any agreement involving UK-wide regulatory alignment on the basis that it could hinder their vision of a clean Brexit which would allow the country to

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: May should ditch her plan to leave the single market

17.4million people backed Brexit, but only two – at least one of whom campaigned for ‘Remain’ – decided that leaving the EU should also mean a departure from the single market, the customs union and the European court of justice, says the Guardian. The pair were, of course, Theresa May and her former aide Nick Timothy, who made what the paper describes as ‘fateful national decisions’ based on ‘personal interpretations of the vote’. This was a ‘reckless’ and ‘foolish’ act, says the Guardian, and nowhere is this seen more obviously in the Irish border row which has been spilling out this week. Here, the decision to leave the customs union collides

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

David Davis suggests regulatory alignment will apply to whole of the UK

A government minister has just appeared at the despatch box to discuss the state of the EU negotiations. Unfortunately for Theresa May, it wasn’t the victorious address No 10 had in mind when they earmarked time in the Chamber for today. Instead, David Davis was summoned to Parliament to answer an urgent question from Labour’s Keir Starmer on the state of the EU negotiations ahead of this month’s EU council meeting. After May’s efforts to agree ‘sufficient progress’ in Brussels yesterday were torpedoed by concerns from the DUP over concessions on the Irish border, the shadow Brexit secretary accused the government of giving new meaning to the phrase ‘coalition of chaos’.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Tories are playing a dangerous game with the Union

It is a measure of devolution’s success that politicians, provided they are of sufficient stature, can make waves and news even though they are not members of the House of Commons. In their different ways – and with their very different destinations in mind – both Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson demonstrate as much. The United Kingdom – for such it just about remains – is better for this.  For some time now, we have been waiting for Davidson to make a Brexit intervention. This morning she obliged. Addressing yesterday’s near-fiasco on the other side of the north channel, the Scottish Tory leader released a statement demanding that: ‘If regulatory